County hopes to have new health director in October

The job opening will close to internal candidates today, according to information from the county.

AMANDA HICKEY - Daily News Staff

Onslow County officials hope to have a new health director within 45 days.

The job opening will close to internal candidates today, according to information from the county.

“We’re to the point where we are ready to interview and, following our policy, if there are strong internal candidates, we prefer to open it up initially to internal candidates, go through that process and, if necessary, open it up to external candidates,” said Deputy County Manager David Cotton.

Cotton said that, depending on how the interviews go, the county hopes to have a new health director within 30 to 45 days.

“But we have a strong interim health director right now so if that needs to push out to 60 days or longer it’s not going to negatively impact the health department,” he said.

Cotton said that the time frame depends on who applied, if they are qualified for the position and if they are the right fit for the position, though he wouldn’t elaborate on what would be the right fit.

“I don’t want to tip the county’s hand of what we’re looking for,” he said, explaining that candidates who read that before applying would be at an advantage over the candidates who have already applied.

According to the job posting on the Onslow County website, the person hired as Health Director will be responsible for assessment, policy development and assurance of all programs and activities affecting the public health in Onslow County. The Health Director performs difficult professional and administrative work managing the county’s health department and does related work as required.

The job opening lists the annual salary as $78,961 to $102,650.

Angela Lee has been serving as interim director of the department at an annual salary of $95,000 since George O’Daniel was terminated from the position in July due to “grossly inefficient job performance and unacceptable personal conduct.”

O’Daniel began working at the Health Department on Aug. 9, 1999 and previously told The Daily News that he was “very proud” of his time at the department.

Amanda Hickey is the government reporter at The Daily News. She can be reached at amanda.hickey@jdnews.com.